The European Union deal announced early Friday morning is yet another small step along the road to solving the euro zone debt crisis rather than a conclusive solution, analysts and economists told CNBC Friday. EU leaders have secured new rules on tougher budget discipline but failed to agree on a treaty change to enshrine the rules, making it more likely that the 17 euro zone states will reach a deal separately. British Prime Minister David Cameron was the most high-profile dissenter from the proposals to grant the EU greater powers. "This is another stage down the road towards fiscal union and also marks progress in terms of the EFSF and IMF. Obviously, this is not the end station," Jens Larsen, Chief European Economist, RBC, told CNBC.

Associated Press
Real-estate groups want Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) and other lawmakers to drop a plan to raise fees charged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Congress is considering tapping troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for cash — and that has the real-estate industry upset. Major real estate industry groups on Thursday urged lawmakers to reject an attempt to raise money to renew a payroll-tax cut by raising fees charged by Fannie and Freddie, the mortgage giants that have been under government control for more than three years. A move to do so is afoot on Capitol Hill. The idea was floated by the so-called super-committee on deficit reduction, where it appeared to have bipartisan support as an uncontroversial — and politically painless — way for lawmakers to raise money. However, the real-estate groups say it would be a mistake to pay for the tax break through raising fees that the government-controlled mortgage-finance companies charge lenders. Doing so, they argue, would violate the purpose of those fees — to compensate for losses on bad mortgages. The fees “should not be diverted for purposes unrelated to the safety and soundness of the housing finance system,” wrote the Mortgage Bankers Association, National Association of Home Builders and National Association of Realtors in a letter sent Thursday to Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.), the author of the tax package. Instead, the lobbying groups say those fees should be used to reduce losses at Fannie and Freddie, whose rescue three cost taxpayers $151 billion to date. Those fees should “continue to be used solely for the purpose of minimizing the loss exposure of these government-sponsored enterprises,” they wrote. Democratic and Republican leaders have expressed support for extending payroll-tax cuts and jobless benefits that expire at the end of the year. But the parties have split on how to offset the costs. If they don’t act, the employee payroll tax that funds Social Security is scheduled to increase...

European stocks and U.S. index futures gained while the euro rebounded after the region’s leaders boosted a rescue fund and tightened budget rules to stem the debt crisis. Italian 10-year bonds fell and the cost of insuring against default increased for a third day.

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